US sprinter gets life ban

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Sprinter Jerome Young, a central figure in a doping case that
could cost the United States its relay gold medal from the Sydney
Olympics, has been banned for life by the US Anti-Doping Agency
following his second positive test for a banned drug.

Young, the world 400 metres champion, tested positive for
performance-enhancing erythropoietin at a Paris meeting in
July.

He is believed to be the first sprinter to test positive for
EPO, which is popular with endurance runners and cyclists.

Tests for EPO were introduced at the 2000 Sydney Games. US
sprinter Kelli White admitted she used EPO and other
performance-enhancing drugs when she accepted a two-year ban for
doping this year.

Young, 28, tested positive for the steroid nandrolone in 1999,
but was exonerated by a US appeals panel in July 2000, avoiding a
two-year ban.

He ran in the opening and semi-final rounds of the 2000 Games in
Sydney, but not in the 4 x 400 metres final,

All six members of the relay squad received gold medals, but
Young's was stripped.

Meanwhile, triathlon has been hit by its biggest doping
controversy, with the revelation that Hawaiian Ironman winner Nina
Kraft has tested positive.

Kraft's website confirmed German newspaper reports that she had
returned a positive test at the October 16 race to the banned blood
booster EPO.

If Kraft loses first place at Hawaii, Australian Kate Major
would be elevated from fourth place to third.